Sunday, October 17, 2010

Camels in front of the modern side of the river. We walked across the rocky riverbed to get to the ancient city.

Dave on a terrace overlooking an ancient adobe village on a hill side. This old settlement has been used in lots of movies. Especially the Jesus movies. We walked across a wide dried up river bed to go climb into the old city. It is a UN Historic Landmark w/ official status and all.

Up into the Atlas Mountains. Mostly very dry except for the valleys where lots of fruit trees and are and vegestables are grown. Lots of sheep...very Biblical looking.

Daniel said the water table in Morocco has dropped from something like 20 ft to 65 ft. Everything is much drier and many streams and rivers are dried up what once ran all year. Now they only run when the snows melt. Wells must now be dug much deeper. I am really convinced that there are way too many people in both countries we visited on this trip. I do nto know how they grow enuf food for the population in Morocco. Ditto Spain. Madrid now has 4 million people, all around the city are miles and miles of futuristic prison-looking high-rises, that look like the ones you used to drive thru to get into Chicago. (I think some of them are now torn down , but it used to look like a space movie to me.) I remember Barcelona being the same....I was told that the TV and such promotes birth control and since it is a socialist government that they do anything they can to irritate the Catholics. We don´t see people going to church here at all so I don´t know if the old Catholic notion of tons of kids is alive and well or not. But there are too many people everywhere. I am glad I wont be alive in 50 years.

A bicycle fish peddler rode down the street calling out his wares. He and/or his bike-shop smelled to HIGH HEAVENS of old dead fish and cats followed him all the way...click photos to see a little bigger. I didnt want to upload them too big or it would take forever in this hotel lobby.

Me, Ouidad, Daniel and his daughter Manu and a big delicious dinner of couscous with veggies and chicken in Daniel´s home.

Stuff for sale in the old city market. A lot like it was in Jerusalém. Pretty claustrophobic.

Didnt buy anything there. Was just not up for a 30 minute haggle in very foreign languages and that is the only way. Time is of no matter in Marrakesh, so they consider the selling process just that, a process.

The old city part where there is a big open area where snake charmers, monkey trainers, and various entertainers hang out and put on a show. One of the big attractions for locals are the story tellers, where you see a crowd of people gathered around...lots of smoke in the air from vendors selling stuff cooked on small charcoal fires. Hard to breathe there.

One of the mosque towers near the old city part of Marrakesh.

Dave relaxing on the sofa on the inner terrace of the upstairs guest area at Daniel´s house. Note the cement floor. It is an old hex tile floor.

Ok--finally got it by way of a lot of work-arounds. And the Spanish version does not have the links to post, etc, in the same location as the English version, so you can´t just guess BTW.

This is a photo of a dead tree along the street and on top of the wacked off truck are crane nests. So it is made into sort of a sculptural thing. This was in a very clean, nice small city , Uarzazate, near the motion picture hot-spot of Morocco. Lots of Biblical and Ben-Hur type films are made in the area. Some Russell Corwe gladiator film was made there and one of the locals we met had his "crew" pass framed in his mud house and photos of himself and R.C.

Attempting to post more photos but dammit all google accounts redirect immediately to the Spanish version and I cant figure out which link is the new post one and one is to report the blog as offensive and I dont want to hit the wrong one !

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Hello from Madrid. Dave got the little laptop to get online so maybe now I can post some photos. In Marrakesh I just didn't have time. We shortened our trip there by two days to allow for more time in Spain.We love Spain. And there is so much to see.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Pres Obama and about 50 secret servicemen and motorcyclists flew by this afternoon. It was a thrill to me ! It was impossible for me to tell which of the several identical black suv's he was in and I think that was the whole idea. Click photos to see them big. Click again after it opens to see it really big.

In the back of my head I sorta expected to see a magnetic sign that said Mr.President, or flags waving or the Pope-mobile and a smiling, waving Mr. Obama.

Dave and I took our folding chairs and some light picnic supplies up to the end of the driveway. Immediately a sheriff showed up and kindly told me that the Secret Service wanted us 75 yards back ...we both agreed that was excessive. He told me to move our chairs back about 20 ft since there were thick palmettos and trees and he couldn't see us there from his 'post' . So we did.

He told us that the caravan would come flying by fast and he was right. Since the whole road was closed, they could do as they pleased. First were several police and sheriff cars, then about 15 motorcycle police then more unmarked cars of various colors, then a bunch of black suv's with very dark windows. We waved and took photos as best we could. I had a pad and pen w/ me in case they broke down or stopped and needed a jumper cables or something, I was ready for an autograph ;o)

After I was back in the house I got phone calls from 2 friends both telling me they were stuck in the worst traffic jam in their lives. Seems the caravan went on down to the beach highway and then up Hwy 161 and then on to a bar on the water called Tacky Jacks...who knew !! I bet those tourists who just happened to be there got a huge shock. I saw on the news that the Pres was chatting w/ diners and shaking hands etc..in this outdoor watering hole. I bet he used the rest room too as turns out he did take the Mobile Bay Ferry across to Fort Morgan. The ferry does have a bathroom but it is a hot metal box about as big as a matchbox and in 100 degree heat...I think one would cook in it.

Locally it seems our road was the only one totally shut down and announced in advance, so the poor people getting off work in town and the people just driving on Beach Hwy all got stuck behind barricades and sat in their cars in 100 degrees for-e-v-e-r.

The Pres is spending the night in Pensacola tonight. I wonder where? I fully expected him to go to one of the nearby military bases. But he didn't. I am so glad he came here and actually saw the water and beaches for himself. Surely to goodness his attention to this matter sends a message to B-P. And also to other oil companies who may have previously taken safety short-cuts.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Took these photos today on West Beach here in Gulf Shores. Really sad. No clean-up in sight when we were there. We were told that some men show up at high tide and remove some oil from the sand manually w/ shovels and then tide goes out after they are gone leaving most of the oil.Click the photos to see large versions.Lundy

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Just got back from Office Depot up in Foley. I need to print and put together more tile catalogs. I bought what I thought was the right clear plastic pre-punched covers...the photo showed a punched plastic cover...got all the way home, opened them and guess what...they are not punched for the comb binder thingie that holds it all together. I am so mad.

I went back to a place I had ordered my pre-punched paper from before www.mybinding.com and am ordering the correct thing sent right to the door, free shipping and no sales tax. Should have done it in the first place. They have all sorts of do-it-yerself presentation folder and catalog stuff.